Help Save Habanero Steve's Polytunnel

Hello, my name is Olivia and I'm the owner of Habanero Steve's. We make multi award winning hot sauce, chilli jams & pickles using our homegrown speciality chillies which we grow in a commercial sized double polytunnel in Bangor, County Down. We also sell our fresh chillies, plants and seeds, when in season.

Like many others, our tunnel was completely wrecked during Storm Eowyn last month - the roof, ventilation system, wood and overhead irrigation all need replaced. Since then we have been struggling to find a way to fix it. Unfortunately polytunnels are not covered under our insurance policy.

As our valued customers know, Habanero Steve's is ME with a bit of free labour from my family. We are a micro business and I simply do not have the funds or manpower to do the necessary work. We rely on our polytunnel to grow the chillies for use in our small batch sauces and jams. Many of the varieties we grow cannot be bought in shops, so if we don't grow them, we cannot make the products our customers have gotten to know and love.

If you are a lover of our chilli products, or if you are someone who likes to support small businesses, please consider buying a "virtual bottle of hot sauce" by way of a donation to help us raise the money to fix our polytunnel.

I really hate to ask this of you, but without your help, our chilli growing for the foreseeable future will be down to a few plants in our small back garden greenhouse, and we will have to make very difficult decisions about which products to prioritise.

We would be so grateful for whatever amount - however small - you choose to donate.

In return, we promise to keep making the finest hot sauces, chilli jams and pickles for you to buy in markets, shops and events throughout the coming year.

Help us to keep our wee business alive!

Thank you so much for reading.

Olivia